More on Washington and deep balls

I talked to Titans receiver Nate Washington after Wednesday’s practice about his adjustment from Ben Roethlisberger to Kerry Collins. That interview is included in the Thursday notes.

I also talked to Washington about a subtle difference between the Steelers and Titans passing games. In Pittsburgh, Washington’s home for the first four seasons of his career, receivers ran routes, never knowing if they were going to get the ball on a certain play. Sure, there was usually a primary receiver, but like Washington said, “(Roethlisberger) pretty much read the whole field. I think he did a good job of giving everybody an opportunity to go deep for him.”

Here, the Titans offense, under coordinator Mike Heimindinger, is different. The quarterbacks have enough reads to know who is going to get the long ball before the ball is even snapped.

“And that’s a good thing,” Washington continued. “Maybe a great thing. … It’s kind of difficult running that kind of offense in Pittsburgh where you don’t really know if you’re going to get the ball as you’re running because your routes may not be as sharp or your discipline may need to be a lot more focused, whereas here, you come out, you know the possibility of getting the ball is high (or low). It doesn’t matter what the situation is like.

“The quarterback is going to do a good job of going through his progressions and knowing where the ball is going to go.”